Jaguar XJ6 S1 2.8 Manual

Of all the great cars produced by Jaguar between the 1930s and the 1970s, the one that Sir William Lyons was most proud of was the XJ6 Saloon which he called “the best design of all”. Putting his money where his mouth was, he also ran one as his daily driver, the famous PHP 42G which is featured in so many books and magazine articles to this day. Launched in September 1968, the XJ6 was blessed with such astonishing refinement, handling and ride comfort, at such a remarkably affordable price, that it immediately made every other car on the road seem old fashioned and over-priced.

It was initially available in two engine sizes, 2.8 and 4.2-litres, both derivatives of the famous XK straight-six unit. The 2.8 is often unfairly criticised for lacking performance but in fact it is more than adequate for most purposes and will easily keep pace with modern traffic, particularly in 4-speed manual overdrive guise. The quoted figures for the automatic version are 140bhp and 150lb/ft of torque with a 0-60 time of 11.3 seconds and a top speed of 117mph. Some 19,332 examples of the 2.8 were made before it was phased out in 1973.

First registered in Flintshire in June 1971, this particular XJ6 2.8 is the more attractive early short wheelbase version and is fitted with the rare manual overdrive gearbox option which gives it more spritely performance than the standard automatic. Spending much of its early life in Somerset, the car was treated to a bare metal body restoration in 2003 and repainted in its original Wedgewood Blue.

The current vendor acquired the car in 2004 and has used it regularly for attending shows. It also successfully completed the London to Brighton Jaguar run every year between 2005 and 2008, a round trip of over 200 miles each time. Described as being “in very good condition throughout with a particularly nice light blue leather interior”, it is said to drive beautifully and is MOTd until October and taxed until April 2012 (tax being free, of course). These are really wonderful cars to own and we can’t help feeling that they are currently somewhat undervalued…